Pranayma ….. Is a real Exercise?

A couple of months ago , I read a blog on "Pranayama" , a very popular breathing exercise in the Yoga. In the blog the author explained the benefits and the correct technique of doing this exercise. Aside from all of this author also described that when and why you have to do “Pranayama”.

I debated over the benefits claimed in the blog by author that how  it can be compared in any respect to the normal practice?

However , the author did not answer my questions and made fun of my inquiries. I took that incident in a positive way and let go the situation.

But somewhere in my mind it was stuck that how come a “Yoga “ exercise is  comparable to a normal exercise as Jogging , Weightlifting , Boxing , sports etc.?

Not only that another question came in my mind was that why spiritual people used to do "Yoga" at the time of their meditation?

What were the causes and benefits of doing “Yoga” ?

Why modern world  have forgotten all this in a period of time?

I tried to discover answers to these questions but did not get any success.

Let me clear my stand here , I am not trying to tell you that "Yoga" is not good for human body or not have any benefits. My intention is merely to compare that what is the yoga in the term of physical exercise?

Technically , “Yoga” is a really good stretching exercise for the body , which is very essential for any person before & after an exercise & sports.

I have almost forgotten about this incident, but one day some strange thing happened which forced me to think over this again. During the winter break, my wife went to her parents house for a month. This was the time of December & January and the temperature was hovering around -10oC to 0oC, during her absence , I used to start her car, once in a week for 10/15 minutes to maintain a check on the car battery. Nonetheless , I did not bring any pain to take out her car from the garage for a test drive. I assumed just starting the engine of the car will be enough to keep the car in the order.

When she came back from the vacations and took her car to the office , she got a problem that there was very low gas (petrol) in the car and not only this there was not enough air pressure in the tires.

She whined about my negligence but the truth was that I took proper care of her car as per my understanding.

Now the question comes , where things went wrong and why I was not able to predict about those failures? When I analyzed this incident calmly then I found the answers that why and where things went wrong. Now, I will share my basic scientific (daily life) observations with you.

I am not sure , how much you guys understand about "No Load" test. In a simple science term that when you operate a motor/engine without any load this situation is called “No Load”.

For example, in real life , just keep your motorbike on the stand or keep your car stationary in the parking gear and let run their engines run without any change of gear or position, as I did.

By simply running the engine of the motorbike on the stand. Would you be sure when you will ride on your bike , it will work as to be expected?

 I am sure none of you will dare to say "Yes". Same applied to the car , just running the engine for a while does not make sure that the car is in proper working condition or all the required functions of the car have been tested.

Technically, running of the bare engine (this situation) is called "No Load" test.

Similar to this test , a phenomenon in electrical engineering we called "Open Circuit Battery " test.

In this test , someone checks the electric potential of a “bad” Battery without putting it on a load or in a circuit. If you check the voltage of an open battery (Bad) , in the beginning it will show you that the battery is fine. When you will put this in an electric circuit and as soon as the circuit will draw the current out of the Battery , it will show you very low voltage.

Now , come to the main point, why I took so much pain to explain you all this?

Reason , If you notice most of the yoga exercises , you will understand these poses are as good as "No Load" test situation.

Let us understand "Pranayama" , In this exercise what you do ?

You take a breath from one nostril and throw out from another. Can you compare this at all with running?

I am sure , No one will be able to explain how it could be even close to running or jogging.

The reason  is very obvious, in this "Yoga" exercise you are sitting very comfortably and using your breath as per your convenient.

In another contrast , while running you are using your leg/hand/shoulder muscles , putting pressure on your legs &lungs and breathing very heavy after a period of time. However, in "Pranayama" nothing happened like that.

People may argue about the benefits of "Pranayama" but keep in mind these benefits are good for the people those are not doing any exercise in their regular life or in other words just checking your car on "No Load" is better than not checking at all.

Let me clarify again , My idea is not to say that Yoga exercise is useless but to explain you that what you should expect out of this.

Now , I will come to another point what could be the possible reasons that  these exercises came into the picture.

Think about the car example again, the car was parked in the garage for a long time without any drive.

It is obvious that after a period of time this can happen that battery discharge , oil  jam in  the pipeline , lubrication dried up and many more other things.

However , a simple start of the engine for a couple of minutes of time to time can avoid these problems, however , it will not guarantee that the car will run fine.

I think, in the ancient time when these "Spiritual Gurus" (Sadhu , Saint ) used to do “Samadhi” or very long hours of meditation at that time their body was stuck in a position for a long period of time.

In this scenario , If they tried to move  body during meditation , their concentration could be broken?

I believe, what they figured it out that if they put themselves in a different position for long hours that will keep their body parts aligned. By just sitting in one spot for long hours their body got tired after some time then they used to change one pose to another without breaking their concentration.

During meditation to avoid not to fall asleep , they used to take breath little heavier than normal , it gave an extra boost to their essence and keep their lungs align.

Technically , when someone claims that  “Pranayma” is a complete exercise this could be an issue of debate.

In my point of view , “Pranayma” is really good , if you don’t have any time for doing walking/running/jogging/climbi- ng , however only doing this will not justify that you have done a complete workout.

 If possible do the exercise which involves internal and external body parts. It’s not a good idea to just check internal parts without any load.

At last “Pranayma” is as good as “No Load Test” OR “Open Circuit Voltage” , Do you think this will be enough for your body, the decision is yours?

By 
Kapil Kumar

Note: “Opinions expressed are those of the authors, and are not official statements. Resemblance to any person, incident or place is purely coincidental ” . The Author  will not be responsible for your deeds.